Field of the Invention
The present application relates generally to generation of panning shots, and more specifically, to systems, methods, and devices for automatically generating a panning shot from multiple images of a subject object moving across a scene.
Description of the Related Art
A panning shot is an image of a subject object in motion. A subject object is any object of interest within a scene captured by an image capture device. Within a panning shot, the subject object is sharp while the background of the scene (for example, aspects of the scene other than the subject object) is blurry. The blur, being in the direction of the subject object, creates a visual effect of motion in the panning shot. Panning shots are typically taken by experienced photographers. For example, a panning shot may be taken by reducing shutter speed/exposure time to a value less than a value calibrated to capture a sharp image of the subject object. In such a situation, optimal exposure time may be difficult to determine due to being a function of the motion of the subject object as well as ambient light. As another example, a panning shot may be taken by moving the image capture device in a same direction of motion as the subject object. However, such a panning shot would require steady hands or a tripod to track the subject object. Also, the movement rate and direction of motion of the image capture device would be controlled to match that of the moving subject object or the panning shot may be excessively blurred. Accordingly, improved systems and methods to facilitate generation of panning shots would be beneficial.